You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Politics is the art of the possible.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.